Diagnostic Hospital Munich

Munich, Germany

Department of Diagnostics

Prof. Dr. med.

Lars Grenacher

Specialized in: radiology

Ultrafast computer tomographs (UCT)

This is the most accurate and rapid method for diagnosis. These computer tomographs make the most delicate structures inside your body visible by taking very thin slice images of your organs and vessels with a special X-ray tube. The transverse images are processed by computer to 3-D colour images of the body; they are extremely graphic and more reliable than usual CT or X-ray images.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Magnetic resonance imaging is a painless, ultramodern procedure available in the Diagnostic Clinic for “looking through” the human body to make medical analyses. This method does not involve the use of ionising radiation that characterises conventional X-rays, so that images - even during pregnancy after the forth month – can be repeated at any time and with any desired frequency.

Positron-emission tomograph (PET)

PET can not only diagnose a malignant tumour by giving its size and spread, it can also display metastases in the whole body tridimensionally.

Mammography​

Mammographyis a special X-ray technique for early detection of breast cancer. The Clinic uses both conventional and digital mammography. The latter has low radiation and is thus gentle for the body. It impresses through a very high diagnostic value. Specialists of the clinic can recognise confidently even the smallest changes in the breast tissue with this method. The clinic also offers MR mammography which is considered today as the best method for detecting breast cancer. There is no use of radiation for this examination.

Digital X-ray

In an X-ray, the attenuation of the X-ray beam by the body is used to image the organs being examined. Bones, joints, and the chest organs are the organs most commonly examined. Images of the lung, heart, digestive tract and examinations of the colon are also possible. The administration of an X-ray contrast medium is necessary in many cases to improve the validity of the image. In conventional X-ray, the X-ray film is exposed as in photography; in digital X-ray a storage film is used. This is read by a laser scanner and stored on a computer as an image.

Ultrasound

This method is also designated as sonography and is today among the most established diagnostic procedures in medicine. It is particularly gentle on the body because it is fully painless and emits no radioactive rays. The modern devices that we use in our clinic deliver precise, high-resolution, partially coloured images from the interior of the body and allow our experienced doctors to recognise even the smallest changes.

Virtual colonoscopy

Virtual colonoscopy: computer-tomography images of the bowel are converted into three-dimensional images. Subsequently we take a virtual journey through the colon and inspect the bowel mucose thoroughly for disturbances and pathologic changes. The method is very reliable: in clinical studies more than 90% of all bowel polyps larger than 10 mm in size were detected. When using this method there is no need to introduce the endoscope.

Virtual gastroscopy

Virtual gastroscopy: doctors acquire the images form the inside of the stomach not by direct observation with the endoscope, but by using UCT images that they process with a special computer programme to create spatial images and then project them onto the screen. Then the doctor can take a virtual journey by monitor through the inside of the stomach and examine the mucosa millimetre by millimetre for changes such as tumours. Advantage: the virtual colonoscopy and gastroscopy are, in contrast to the conventional endoscopy of these organs, particularly tissue-gentle and of little inconvenience for the patient.

Virtual bronchoscopy

The UCT images are processed on the computer by 3-D image conversion into spatial representations of the trachea, bronchi and the small bronchioles. The physician sees the respiratory passages on the computer monitor in front of his eyes and can navigate through them virtually. This method gives accurate findings for early recognition of bronchial tumours. Inflammatory diseases of the respiratory passages can be also diagnosed by means of a virtual bronchoscopy. Last but not least, this tissue-gentle method can also be applied as a smoker check for prevention.

Virtual angiography

Diagnosis by means of virtual angiography and vessel navigation: the 3-D colour presentation on the monitor of the images acquired by UCT or MRI opens entirely new perspectives in the diagnostic work of the great vessels of the body. The modern image-processing procedures can illustrate with high precision both the course of the blood passages and their permeability, and allows a virtual journey through the vessel system. This method is suitable for the diagnostic work of the carotid artery, the abdominal aorta and the large vessels of the leg and pelvis. Advantage: Elaborate invasive vessel examinations with catheters and x-ray contrast agents can be avoided in many cases.

Prevention

Targeted preventive medicine should prevent or delay diseases and thus make possible a long and healthy life. That is why the Diagnostic Clinic of Munich provides services , but also

Preventive examinations of the body are carried out using the high-tech medical equipment and direct physical examination.